Delhi govt issues notification asking to renew excise licences by October 5

The Delhi government issued a notification on Friday, asking the licensees to renew their existing excise licences by October 5.

The city government has decided to extend its existing excise policy by six months due to the time needed for coming up with a new liquor trade regime.

The policy has been extended till March 31, 2024 following the requisite approvals from the Delhi government and the lieutenant governor, a senior officer had said on Thursday.

"All the licensees of L15/L-15F and L-16/L-16F are hereby directed to submit their applications for renewal of the licences online by accessing their accounts in ESCIMS portal through their ID and passwords, along with the applicable licence renewal fee for the period w.e.f. 01.10.2023 to 31.03.2024 by providing requisite information and payment of renewal licence fee on or before 05.10.2023," the notification read.

A proposal of the excise department to extend the policy, implemented on September 1 last year, was sent for the LG's nod after it was cleared by the government. The file was sent back to the government from the LG's office marked as "seen", the officer had said.

The current excise policy was going to lapse on September 30, requiring either its extension or replacement with a new policy for regulatory necessities to operate retail and wholesale liquor trade in the national capital.

The current policy was meant to be a stop-gap measure to prevent a regulatory vacuum due to the sudden scrapping of the new excise policy for 2021-22 by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government after LG V K Saxena recommended a CBI enquiry into alleged irregularities in its implementation.

The new policy (2021-22), aimed at reforming the liquor trade in Delhi, was implemented on November 17, 2021 and it came to an end on August 31, 2022. Under the policy, the Delhi government quit retail liquor sale, allowing private parties to run liquor stores across the city under a liberal excise regime.

The current excise policy was earlier extended by six months by the government after March 31.